In ice hockey, goaltenders, or goalies, wear very specialized equipment to protect themselves from the many possibilities of injury. Typically, goalies wear goalie leg pads which are bulky, yet lightweight, to protect the goalie while still allowing for freedom of movement while he/she is attempting to stop a rubberized projectile (puck) from getting into a net.
Goalie leg pads have evolved from fairly heavy leather pads filled with horsehair, to the much lighter foam-filled nylon and thinner leather leg protectors that are being used today. The leg pads are designed to attach to the goalie's leg and hockey skates, such as a goalie skate, to allow a goalie to use their legs to block pucks and to also safely fall to their knees on the ice surface. The pads are designed in such a way that the goalie can get back up quickly, once he/she is on the ice. It is beneficial for the leg pad to attach securely to the toe of the skate to help give the goalie complete control of the leg pad so that the leg pads react correctly to a goalie's actions. Currently, this involves a meticulous attachment of the leg pads' buckles and straps to the goalie's legs and skates.
Goalies are often classified in three styles of play. One style is a stand-up goalie which refers to a goalie that prefers to stay in a stand-up position to stop pucks. A stand-up goalie slides and shuffles side to side and relies on control of the goalie stick and skates to stop most low shots. This goalie usually wears the goalie leg pads very snug to the toe of the skates. The second style is a butterfly goalie which spreads their legs flat on the ice to stop low shots. Some of these goalies like to wear their leg pads loose to allow the pads to lay as flat as possible on the ice to cover as much of the lower area of the net as possible. The third style is a hybrid or combination of the first two where the goalies use either setup on their leg pads depending on their personal preference.
The current method of securing a goalie leg pad to a skate is to connect the toe of the goalie hockey skate to the toe area of the leg pad via a pair of laces attached to a toe bridge of each goalie leg pad. The laces are then intertwined around the underside of the skate and brought up around to the topside of the skate and then tightly tied. This is a process where the player bends over in a sitting position to accomplish and often takes two to three minutes per skate. Moreover, it can be a difficult task for youths, parents, juniors and seniors as the lacing must be done correctly to avoid mishap caused by loose or poorly tied knots.
Therefore, there is provided a novel method, system and apparatus for securing a hockey skate to a goalie leg pad.